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S'pore hangs two drug traffickers
JP/11/J02

S'pore hangs two drug traffickers

SINGAPORE: Two Malaysian men convicted of drug-trafficking were
executed here on Friday, the government said, bringing to 12 the
number of people to have died under Singapore's capital
punishment laws this year.

Vignes Mourthi, a Malaysian factory worker, and Moorthy
Angappan, a lorry driver were sentenced to death last year after
being found guilty of trafficking 27.65 grams (0.97 ounces) of
heroin.

"The death sentence was carried out on two convicted drug
traffickers this morning at Changi Prison," a Central Narcotics
Bureau (CNB) statement e-mailed to AFP said, in which it outlined
the case against Mourthi and Angappan.

The CNB said Mourthi, 21 at the time of his arrest, had tried
to sell a packet of heroin to an undercover officer from the
bureau outside the An-Nur mosque in Singapore in September, 2001.

It said Angappan, 27 at the time, asked Mourthi to be the
courier for the drugs.

The CNB statement said Mourthi was charged with trafficking
not less than 27.65 grams of diamorphine, more commonly known as
heroin, while Angappan was charged for abetting in the offense.

They were found guilty in August last year and had appeals
rejected in January this year.

Singapore carries out the death penalty by hanging. -- AFP